“He is a Catholic,” suddenly interposed the Margrave. “You know that well enough. He has betrayed the confidence of my brother.”
Pruckmann signified assent.
The Electoress replied: “Dear brother-in-law, perhaps you are going too far. Schwarzenberg has administered the affairs of the country for years with great wisdom.”
“Only the more completely to deceive,” said the Margrave.
“Again, you are going too far,” said the Electoress, “but we will hear what he himself has to say.”
Schwarzenberg entered. He was a man of tall, commanding figure. The pallor of his sunken cheeks and high forehead spoke of physical weakness, the fire in his large black eyes of abundant mental strength. Upon his dark cloak he wore the insignia of the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John. His sword also indicated that he belonged to the order. It was long and broad, while that worn by the Chancellor was short and narrow.
The Electoress communicated to him the contents of her brother’s letter. He listened to her with a gravity which showed he was deeply interested. At last he said: “Bohemia is a volcano which has been emitting fire and flame these two hundred years, thereby causing widespread devastation. One of its eruptions once swept across the frontier of Brandenburg. The gallant Bernese quenched it with their blood.”
Thereupon Margrave Sigismund answered: “But who aroused the Bohemians’ wrath at that time? Who took from them their noblest man, the pious Huss? While he lived peace prevailed in the land. It was his shameful death and the attacks upon his followers that kindled Bohemian fury.”
Schwarzenberg doubtless thought to himself that his death was the outcome of his heresy, but he made no allusion to Huss and his times. He replied: “They are behaving now in Bohemia as they did then. The twenty-third of May of last year, when at Prague they insolently rejected the counsels of the Emperor, was a ruinous day for that country. They have severed not only the ties which bound them to their lawful Prince, but those which bound them to the Mother Church. How can such things happen without producing bitter strife?”
“Other consequences than you expect may happen,” replied the Margrave. “You are an able man, Schwarzenberg; and yet it will be difficult even for you to prove that the Bohemians are in the wrong. Was not the right of public service and open confession of faith granted to the Protestants in 1555? Has that agreement been kept? You well know where the fire against Protestantism was kindled and where the sign was given that faith need not be kept with heretics. The madness began in foreign countries, in Spain, in France, in the Netherlands. In the space of thirty years over 900,000 Protestant Christians of every condition and age were persecuted.”